Whatever Happened to Scorpina?
Whatever Happened to Scorpina? is the third episode of a tabletop RPG show Power Rangers HyperForce. Synopsis As the HyperForce Rangers rest and recuperate, they take the time to prepare themselves and bond as a team. They are suddenly alerted to a distortion in time and subsequently visit Angel Grove Library to investigate. Plot The HyperForce timeship is continuing to be battered by the forces of the Alliance with its shields at 55% and dropping and its main power suddenly going offline. The backup battery reserves kick in to give the medical bay minimal power while Marvin is trying to give Jack CPR chest compressions to restart his heart. Chloe, in a moment of emotionally freaking out, slaps Jack to try to revive him. Jack hears Chloe's voice in his weakening conscious state while Vesper frantically searches for a defibrillator. Marvin starts to get emotional as he thinks he is losing the closest thing he has to a friend and starts pounding harder on Jack's chest. Vesper finds the defibrillator and rushes over to shock Jack's heart while Marvin continues CPR. Jack begins to regain consciousness and Alpha 55 says he has stabilized. With Jack in no more immediate danger, the other Rangers must try to reconnect power to the ship and try to defend themselves against the ongoing attack. Eddie remembers from his history lessons that older Time Force ships had battle command stations, which he, Chloe and Vesper go to while Marvin stays behind to watch over Jack. Marvin blames himself at first for what happened, but Alpha 55 reassures Marvin she can take care of Jack while Marvin takes charge of the situation by going to his battle station. The team is surprised to find out the assault is not from the Alliance ship, but from the ground as black bolts of energy constantly hit them. Alpha relocated the ship a little to the mountains of Angel Grove to keep any civilian casualties from happening. The Leader pursues them and continues his attack, with the Rangers finding out there are no weapons onboard that can be used on a small target as the HyperForce timeship was designed to destroy other time ships and large targets, thus using the cannons could risk hitting Angel Grove. Vesper goes for a more direct method and pilots the ship to ram right into The Leader, but Marvin wants to get out of range of the Leader's attacks. The Leader goes under the ship and critically damages the thrusters and energy core relays to prevent them from taking off, leaving shields at 20%. Chloe suggests they use remaining power to perform a large scale teleportation to move the ship and the outside forces away from the city, but the time and engine controls get shorted out by the damage. Jack recovers and gets up, overhearing the chaos and morphs, going to find a weapon to help out despite Alpha 55's protests. As Jack goes to the storage locker, Chloe suggests they summon Zords as they have no other options and Power Rangers throughout history usually have them. Marvin is unsure they even have Zords and goes with Vesper's original plan to cut the power to minimum and drop the ship on The Leader. Jack adds the idea of using the Vortex Blaster to deal with the Leader by standing on top of the ship's hatch as the regular ship weapons have no effect when they do try to use them. The team opens the hatch and assembles the Vortex Blaster to fire on the Leader when he is about to blast the main engine apart, which he successfully does anyway after hurling a large burst of power at it. The Leader takes the full force of the attack, then despite his injuries and signs of coughing up blood, recovers. The team uses the Vortex Blaster again but it has no effect as the Leader dodges it. The Leader retreats due to his injuries, warning the Rangers he will definitely kill them next time if they interfere again. The Rangers revel briefly in their victory, but the ship is badly damaged as the time circuits are blown and engine is dead. Vesper tires to get to work fixing the ship using a tool kit, but worries they are going to be trapped in 1994 forever. While Jack and Marvin talk, Chloe activates the cloaking device to keep the ship hidden. What is even more worrisome to the team is there are no other energy signatures to the Morphin Grid anywhere on Earth, meaning the Mighty Morphin team possibly isn't on Earth at the moment or possibly worse, the Alliance has done something to them. The Rangers assess the damage to the ship, wondering if it has any automated repair functions or if Alpha's programming contains any data on the ship. Vesper horrifically even considers cannibalizing Alpha's parts to repair the ship, which her teammates object to. Jack comes up with a better idea to move the ship to Angel Grove Park and submerge it in the lake to hide it. Given that The Leader can sense Ranger energy to find them, Marvin suggests they only morph when absolutely necessary and never stay morphed when heading back to the ship so the Leader can't find them. 'November 1994' It is now 3AM in the morning in Angel Grove, but the ship's extensive damage is so severe that it cannot move at all. Jack is feeling better and able to move about more, with Chloe offering him a burrito. Marvin is berating himself for his reckless actions that got Jack hurt and feels that the team needs to train to hone their Ranger powers to be better prepared for an attack by the Alliance. He also adds that he hates the sense of helplessness he felt when things got bad, thus he wants to improve himself. Alpha 55 examines the injuries of the Rangers, as they are giving off a strange energy signature in addition to the electrical burns, which she implies may be mystical in property as no known science can explain it. Marvin remembers from history class that there were Power Rangers who possessed magic based abilities or were powered by mystical energies. Alpha 55 confirms this and notes that the Mighty Morphin team signatures have been located, they are currently off planet somewhere. Marvin wonders if the magic residue can be removed, only for it to vanish. Eddie theorizes that the energy is why some members of their school were acting strange, it is an energy that induces some kind of mind control which allows the Alliance to gain more members. If a specific amount of it is inserted into a person, they would become evil and join the Alliance. Jack and Marvin did not receive a strong enough dose to be affected, with Marvin thinking their morphers and Ranger powers filtered out the dark energy to keep them safe. Alpha 55 then reminds the team about the responsibilities of being a Ranger, never using power for personal gain, use teamwork and to follow instructions when given. Each member of the team goes to do a task, Vesper works on the Hyperdrive engines, Eddie and Marvin go to look for a place to train, Chloe looks for less ridiculous period clothing she brought on the ship for them to wear (which she seems to imply she stole from a store given her shifty eyes) and Jack tries on a few outfits. After a few days, the team has started bonding and are working together to solve problems. Vesper gives Eddie a list of items they can find in 1994 that may help fix the ship, such as automobile engines which they can melt down into parts. In another part of the ship, Alpha 55 mentions to Marvin and Chloe there is a pocket dimension on the ship, where any place a person desires can be created. Marvin wants to use it as a training simulator and raise the damage level so any pain they feel is real. Alpha 55 advises against this, but Chloe makes it slightly better by suggesting the environment be filled with rainbows and marshmallow clouds while they fight. The two train, using teamwork and tactics with their combined powers to take down a monster created by the simulator. Marvin soon discovers his Ranger powers are fire based while Chloe's are wind based and they combine them to create a fire tornado to envelop the monster and destroy it. The other team members observe this from outside and cheer. A few more days later, Chloe experiments with the food replicator to create new kinds of burritos, her first recipe being a pancake breakfast burrito. Jack eats it and becomes nostalgic for his grandmother's cooking as the burrito reminds him of her food. Later in the day, Eddie and Chloe experiment with the food replicator, revealing that it creates healthier versions of food but seems incapable of replicating "bad" foods due to its programming. This bums Chloe out as she has developed a sweet tooth after eating Halloween candy like candy corn for the first time and Marvin has developed a taste for hamburgers. The replicator can only make vegan burgers and adds kale to every burrito and entree. Marvin and Chloe decide to tinker with the replicator to create the foods they actually want to eat while Vesper and Eddie have a private talk in the living quarters. Vesper gives Eddie a gift (a blue wrench) as a thank you for helping and says that she is glad to have a friend, as before she met Eddie she had a hard time interacting with people. The moment is interrupted by Marvin and the others calling for help as the replicator has malfunctioned due to their tampering, spewing rainbow sprinkles everywhere and covering the floor with nacho cheese. Jack comes in with some brooms, but then everybody laughs and has a good time with a food fight while Chloe makes "cheese angels". Later on in the day, Eddie and Chloe talk about history and the ramifications of time travel, debating if whether they are doing the right thing. This conversation is interrupted by Marvin yelling for Eddie as the replicator has gone haywire again. Jack makes a diagram, trying to figure out the case of the Leader and the Alliance. He finds that something does not add up: what is the Alliance's motive to come to this exact point in time? He surmises they were lured into a trap. The ship blares an alarm as a time anomaly has been detected. Alpha 55 panics as sensors indicate the anomaly is the fact that someone in Angel Grove has vanished from history. The timeship's computers determine who has vanished and project a holographic image of... Scorpina. Eddie immediately recognizes her as an evil enemy of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Alpha 55 mentions she is one of the powerful servants of Rita Repulsa. This makes Eddie wonder if what the Alliance is after isn't the Power Rangers, but their enemies from across time. Alpha 55 says that the effects of Scorpina's removal from history have yet to take hold of the entire time stream, so it is hard to determine what it means for changes to history. Alpha 55 then traces the remaining residual temporal energies where Scorpina may have been before her erasure: Angel Grove Park, the beach or the Angel Grove public library. Jack suggests Vesper use her device to see into the time stream to find her, even though some of the team are skeptical about helping a villain. Vesper has also been working on some new weapons for the team to protect themselves from The Leader if he should appear with Eddie's help (she also stripped Alpha 55's ankles a bit for parts). The team stores their new personal weapons in their morphers and teleport for Angel Grove Park to investigate Scorpina's disappearance. Alpha 55 warns them that the Mighty Morphin Rangers could be back soon from their off world mission and the Hyper Force should not interfere with them by making themselves known, as this could change history even more. The team wears overalls and backwards hats to blend in better with the time period as they teleport in. They do not find any clues so they head to the library next, which is busy as the kids of Angel Grove High are out of school and studying or reading. They find a woman reading named Sabrina who resembles Scorpina and try to talk to her, but she is emotionally cold and does not enjoy their attempts at conversing with her, getting more and more agitated. Eddie is under her spell and seems to be infatuated with Sabrina, forgetting his friends and wanting to be with her alone. Jack is reminded of Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey, who went mad after hearing the call of the Sirens and was tied to the mast of his ship by his crew to prevent him from crashing the ship into the rocks. Jack is suggesting they restrain Eddie, but Chloe has a better idea and asks Vesper to pretend to be the jealous girlfriend and tell Sabrina to leave Eddie alone. This works as it sparks Eddie's memories of friendship with Vesper and snaps him out of it, though he almost slips up and mentions he and his friends are Rangers to "Sabrina". Eddie makes things worse by trying to talk to Alpha 55 to scan Sabrina, which makes her even more suspicious of them and starts questioning the group. She suspects that they all share one thing in common, they have both encountered the Leader. Marvin tries to cover up Eddie's blunders by saying they are park rangers searching for a UFO, but Sabrina does not believe them and says that if they are agents of the Leader, she has already refused his offer. This offer was to join the Leader's Alliance and destroy the Power Rangers forever, which due to her pride as a warrior, she wants to do herself and never take orders from Rita or Lord Zedd again. (She seem to hint she really hates Zedd and refuses to work for him). Suddenly, a powerful storm emerges outside and Marvin tires to use this as a distraction to get people out of the building so they can talk to "Sabrina" alone. A menacing figure stands outside, waiting on "Sabrina". Their attempts to make the people in the Public Library leave cause them to make a scene and Scorpina after talking a bit, is placed under the monster's control. He orders Scorpina to go to the Moon Palace and steal Finster's clay, she obeys and teleports to the Moon. Cast *Peter Sudarso - Marvin Shih (Hyper Force Red Ranger) *Andre Meadows - Eddie Banks (Hyper Force Blue Ranger) *Paulie Schrier - Jack Dealgoode Thomas (Hyper Force Yellow Ranger) *Cristina Vee - Vesper Vasquez (Hyper Force Black Ranger) *Meghan Camarena - Chloe Ashford (Hyper Force Pink Ranger) Errors *''to be added'' Notes *'Episode Sponsor:' Power Rangers: Legacy Wars *As the episode title implies, this episode takes care of a plot hole in the original series by addressing the absence of Scorpina in later episodes of the Mighty Morphin TV series. *During the battle with the tall monster in the simulator, Marvin suggests to Chloe that they circle it in opposite directions around its legs. Chloe then responds in her own quirky way: "Oooh! I love " *Upon mentioning that Scorpina was a servant of Rita Repulsa, Chloe says she once cosplayed as the evil empress, reflecting the Power Rangers fandom and how they dress up as their favorite characters at conventions. It also reflects the fact that Meghan is a professional cosplayer in real life. *In minor expansion of Scorpina's character, Alpha 55 states she loves going to the beach and reading books from the library. *In a reference to the original Mighty Morphin season, Alpha 55 adds t-shirts to the team's disguises that match their respective Ranger colors. *In a reference to 1990s culture, Vesper says while in the Angel Grove Library she heard of old legends about a computer game where you " ". *While pretending to be Eddie's jealous girlfriend, Vesper claims she has read "The Book of Five Rings", misinterpreting it as an entry of the Lord of the Rings. She even mentions Gandalf the Grey's famous line: "You Shall Not Pass!" *This episode takes place the same time The Power Transfer does since the '94 Rangers are off planet. See Also *''to be added'' External links * Episode on YouTube *Episode VOD on Twitch (Exclusive to Hyper RPG subscribers) * Fireside Chat on Twitch (Exclusive to Hyper RPG subscribers)